Sean Penn praises Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky for being ‘incredibly genuine’ while promoting Superpower documentary on ABC

• The 63-year-old Academy Award actor appeared on the ABC talk show to promote Superpower currently available on the Paramount+ streaming service 
•  Sean said they had planned on doing a lighthearted look at a comic actor who had become president
•  ‘There’s never a moment with him that’s not genuine,’ Sean said of Zelensky

Sean Penn praised Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday while promoting his documentary Superpower about the president of Ukraine on Jimmy Kimmel Live.

The 63-year-old Academy Award actor appeared on the ABC talk show to promote Superpower currently available on the Paramount+ streaming service.

Sean, wearing a black jacket, jeans and sneakers, told Jimmy, 55, about meeting Zelensky, 45, in a bunker. Sean said he met the Ukrainian president for the first time face-to-face to discuss his participation in filming and by the next morning he heard rockets heading towards Kyiv.

‘Then we got a surprising call from the President’s office that he was going to continue and have the first session of shooting,’ Sean said.

‘You did not go over there knowing that Russia was about to attack Ukraine,’ Jimmy said. ‘You went over there, and correct me if I’m wrong, to make a documentary about Zelensky.’

New documentary: Sean Penn praised Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday while promoting his documentary Superpower about the president of Ukraine on Jimmy Kimmel Live

‘It was before any news of a Russian buildup,’ Sean said. ‘We knew that Ukraine had been at war, defensively at war, in the east since 2014.’

Sean said they had planned on doing a lighthearted look at a comic actor who had become president. Jimmy said he also heard that Sean received a warning from the US State Department telling them to get out of Ukraine because it wasn’t safe. Sean said they worked with an Ukrainian production crew who had no intent on leaving their country.

Jimmy shared a clip from the bunker in which Zelensky said Russian President Vladimir Putin hated them and he didn’t know why. 

‘When he came in that day, in that piece that you showed, it was as though he was born for this moment,’ Sean said. ‘There is something incredibly genuine about him.’

Sean said his goal with the film was to give a context to the situation that you wouldn’t get from the news.

‘It’s not a surprise to most people that I’m an opinionated person but I work very hard in the editing of this film to not hide that,’ Sean said.

Sean was asked what Zelensky was like.

‘Of any head of state, of any politician, of any head of a large company, there’s a time you start to feel the script and the spin,’ Sean said. ‘There’s never a moment with him that’s not genuine.’

Bunker clip: Jimmy shared a Superpower clip from the bunker in which Zelensky said Russian President Vladimir Putin hated them and he didn’t know why

Always genuine: ‘Of any head of state, of any politician, of any head of a large company, there’s a time you start to feel the script and the spin,’ Sean said. ‘There’s never a moment with him that’s not genuine’

ABC show: Jimmy welcomed the 63-year-old Oscar winner onto his ABC talk show

Jimmy asked if Zelensky had seen the documentary and Sean said he saw a rough cut.

‘He doesn’t come off great in the first half-hour of the movie,’ Sean said. ‘When I walked into the office, he had watched it at 6:30 that morning.’

Sean said Zelensky stood up and looked at him and said ‘I bet you are glad that I watched the whole thing.’

Jimmy asked him when he goes to dangerous situations if he had a schedule about checking in with his kids to let them know he is okay. 

Sean said he would just lie and tell them and his assistant that ‘everything’s just fine.’ Sean recalled when he went to Iraq in 2002 and that his kids were not happy.

‘I got a sat phone and I thought this is the moment, kids are home from school, I can call real quick,’ Sean said. ‘Usually very quiet time of day. I went to a wall and just when both kids got on the phone, there was a war on the other side, just rap rap rap rap and my son said ‘what is that dad?’ So I never called them from any place again.’

Sean has son Hopper, 30, and daughter Dylan, 32, with ex-wife Robin Wright, 57. 

Jimmy asked how he would feel if his kids went to war areas like him.

Checking in: Jimmy asked him when he goes to dangerous situations if he had a schedule about checking in with his kids to let them know he is okay

‘We have hundreds of thousands of young men and women who are doing that to protect our country all the time,’ Sean said. ‘My children, I prefer they are not in dangerous places. I remember being in Ukraine and seeing what happened on television with Chris Rock at the Academy Awards and Will Smith and I thought, I didn’t like them being in that dangerous place.’

Sean dedicated the film to a Ukrainian fighter pilot named Juice who he took with him to see a screening of the new Top Gun movie in Ukraine. 

He said in the film when Tom Cruise ejects from his plane and makes his way through the desert and finds a diner that Juice leaned over and said to him ‘That’s why I always take my wallet.’

Superpower premiered in February at the Berlin International Film Festival. 

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